LAHORE, July 13: Two constituents of the defunct Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) have re-launched their efforts to revive the six-party religious alliance in the wake of prevailing political scenario.

The alliance went into dormancy when Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rehman participated in the February 2008 general elections in violation of the MMA leaders’ decision of boycotting the polls in line with the All-Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) policy.

Maulana Fazl had earlier annoyed his colleagues in the alliance, especially Qazi Husain Ahmad of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), by failing to fulfill the promise of dissolving Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then NWFP) Assembly to render incomplete the electoral college for presidential polls held in October 2007 and ostensibly paving the way for General Musharraf’s election.

Leaders of the JI and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan-Noorani (JUP-N) met here on Wednesday in a bid to resuscitate the religious grouping.

Led by Munawwar Hasan and Liaquat Baloch of the JI and Pir Ijaz Hashmi and Qari Zawwar Bahadur of the JUP-N, delegations of the two parties discussed ways and means to contact various religious and political parties.

The JUP-N would shortly convene a meeting of the MMA constituent parties in this regard and a final date would be made public after contacting all the members of the gathering.

Hashmi later told Dawn that the session would be held in Karachi. Both the parties also decided to bring together all “patriotic” opposition parties, Hashmi said and added that likely expansion in the MMA would also be discussed in the meeting.